Silence
by Ivy Aithne
Summary: [in character sasusaku snapshot] More often than not, he could be found sitting on a couch reading a book with his pinkhaired teammate sitting on the floor, leaning against his legs as she built models of chemical structures.


**Silence**

For all those who have always been at a loss for words.

* * *

When he came back, she said nothing.

There were no loud shrieks, painfully hard punches, tight hugs, passionate kisses, or floods of tears. There were no long rants, no arguments, no frantic gesturing, nor declarations of love and marriage.

There was simply silence.

She had often dreamt of this day – the day when the blonde would bring back their fallen comrade to the place of his birth. She would envision how she would respond, usually picturing herself either slapping the living daylights out of the renegade or hugging him to the point of asphyxiation. Sometimes she would imagine him kissing her or asking her to help rebuild his clan and her agreeing, reaffirming the love she had felt for him all those years ago.

She never thought she would be silent.

He never thought she would be silent either.

He was surprised when the only thing she did was calmly slip her right arm under his left one, sharing the burden of his weight with the blonde on his right.

* * *

The fifth hokage had let the traitor off relatively easy, deciding that the annihilation of Sound and the most dangerous group of renegade ninjas balanced his crime of killing Konoha citizens to a degree. It wasn't as if he had leaked any village secrets anyway; his only real crime was taking on a mission he was never assigned and hurting those who tried to interfere, which in a twisted way was her own fault. She was the one who had halfheartedly sent shinobi after him, perhaps knowing subconsciously in the back of her mind that they would never come back unscathed if they crossed the Uchiha's path. The people, however, were not as lenient as their leader and went out of their way to make him feel unwelcome among them, forcing him into an even lonelier isolation than his own self-imposed solitude.

Sometimes he would wander around the village, trying to forget the smile on his brother's face when he plunged the chidori into his beating heart. Other times, he would spar with his old blonde teammate who had dragged him back from the brink of death and eat ramen afterwards with him. Neither ever mentioned how it was always the raven-haired man who paid for both meals as if trying to apologize without having the words to do so.

More often than not, however, he could be found in an office at the hospital, sitting on a couch reading a book or a random scroll with a relaxed but expressionless face. His rosette-haired teammate, now a medic-nin, would be sitting on the carpeted floor next to his legs trying to figure out the structures of various molecules with an organic chemistry model set given to her by their former masked instructor.

He always treasured these moments when silence permeated the room. It wasn't a hostile silence like the one in his own house, but a peaceful one that allowed him to think while knowing that there was someone else _there_. She just sat at his feet, sometimes leaning against his legs, fiddling with small plastic balls and sticks.

There were never any words exchanged, but every once in a while a faint smile would cross her lips when she saw him. He would offer a small smirk, and there would be a general understanding of all the words that were left unsaid between them.

I'm sorry.

Thank you.

I love you.

* * *

A/N: A bit more obscure than my other snapshots, but I couldn't get the picture of Sakura sitting on the ground leaning against Sasuke's legs while he's reading out of my head. Two people doing two different things but keeping each other company at the same time. Cute and different! Hopefully Sakura's reaction to Sasuke's return was different enough-I wanted to try a different spin on it other than "OMG SASUKE YOU'RE BACK!"

Just for the record, I WILL be updating MOTHS again pretty soon. The next chapter is about a quarter of the way done. Sorry about the long wait! Please check my profile for further excuses/explanations.


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